Exploring Knowledge Engineering in Cognitive Skills Transfer for Small and Medium-Sized Companies Using Eye Tracking

Past Research by the Authors

We have pursued research on knowledge engineering through a focus on pottery, a traditional form of Japanese culture, as a subject of skill transfer. We found that the artisan first has a bird's eye view of the whole, and attention is then directed from the center of the clay that will form the pottery to the left side (Nakamura & Nagayoshi, 2019). This shift occurs because in the interaction between the potter's wheel and the artist’s fingers, the left side of the spinning clay is molded around the left side of the bowl by applying pressure to the left side of the bowl with the fingers of the right hand and supporting it with the palm of potter’s left hand. Next, the authors identified a certain rhythm in the potters’ eye movements as they followed the molding process (Nakamura & Nagayoshi, 2020a) and proposed one of the possible educational tools for skill transfer (Nakamura & Nagayoshi, 2020b). Furthermore, they attempted to model the characteristics of this rhythm in terms of the line of gaze, which changes depending on the object being molded (Nakamura & Nagayoshi, 2020c). In the present study, the authors focused on eye movements not in pottery art but in knowledge engineering, specifically, skill transfer, as found in Japan’s manufacturing SMEs.